Queen of Blades

by Salacar

Chapter One

To say that the Queen of Blades was in a bad mood would have been an understatement. Her entire body was still throbbing with pain when she managed to return from the world of unconsciousness. The last thing she remembered after the Xel’Naga artifact hit her and knocked her out, was a rainbow colored mass of light which washed over her mind and banished any would-be dreams she would find in her sleep.

Not only that, but she could actually feel that damnable light infecting her mind and body. It almost felt like the Ghost conditioning she had undergone in her youth, only much stronger. The process had been designed to limit her extraordinary psionic abilities, the Terran fools having clearly been afraid of her true potential. Those were the worst years of her life, having your own mind restricted was no pleasant experience. The day she finally managed to undo the conditioning had been truly liberating.

So when the Queen of the Zerg awoke to find herself trapped in a small, dark chamber, not that the darkness hindered her in any way mind you, the first thought on her mind was that the Terrans had managed to capture her following the activation of the Xel’Naga artifact, and had somehow tried to limit her psionic abilities once more. She certainly couldn’t feel her Swarm anymore. At that moment she was in fact more furious than she had ever been before, the thought of losing her destined powers, to be reduced to something lesser, haunted her mind like nothing else.

The poor chamber wall never stood a chance, exploding outwards in a torrent of marble, stone and debris as she blasted it with a massive telekinetic force. Dim daylight shone through the dust caused by the destruction, and the Queen of Blades took a step through the opening, determined to put an end to any Terran in her way. She did not however, expect to find what she did.

The first thing she discovered was that her location, which she had originally believed be a Terran facility, was in fact nothing of the sort, but instead turned out to be what looked like the main hall of some sort of cathedral. Marble pillars stood arrayed on either side of her, a garish shade of purple painted much of her surroundings, and colorful banners completed the almost sickeningly sweet interior.

Not one to be easily surprised, the Queen managed to keep herself from showing any outside sign of duress. Yet when she noticed the other inhabitants of the room, she couldn’t help but lift a single brow. They were, for a lack of a better word, equines. There were more than a dozen of them, all with grey or white fur, their bodies covered in a layer of golden metallic armor. Some of them even had horns on their foreheads or wings at their sides. Most of them were carrying spears, all of which were pointed in her direction by their wide-eyed wielders, who looked much more stunned to see her than she did them.

In front of them stood a single horned equine, this one clearly the superior of the group, judging from his purple colored armor and the way he had managed not to be too startled by her appearance. Indeed, his abnormally large blue eyes were actually narrowed at her, and in a most hostile way no less. This one clearly had spirit.

Only one thought really ran through the baffled Queen’s mind.

‘... interesting.’

That’s when the lead equine stomped a hoof to the ground, promptly bringing the rest of the soldiers out of their surprised state, and causing all of them to narrow their eyes threateningly at her. The militant order of the group, and their obvious dependency on crafted armor and weaponry, brought a single word to her mind: Terran. She almost felt disgusted by the show of weakness in front of her. If these creatures were truly warriors, they would have evolved carapaces and claws instead of relying on weak metal. Then again, she had thought the same way about the Terrans, and they had certainly managed to surprise her. Albeit not with a weapon of their own design.

Shining Armor was troubled, in front of him stood a creature he had never seen before, it looked like some kind of disgusting bipedal bug: a tarnished red carapace covered almost its entire slender body, strange protrusions of bone stood from its back, which looked disturbingly similar to skeletal wings. The flat, grey toned face was the only part of its skull that wasn’t covered by a tentacle-like growth, and the creature’s yellow eyes were looking at him with almost indignant contempt.

The Captain of the Guard stood his ground however, and after breaking his fellow guards out of their stupor he turned his narrowed gaze at it, intent on not letting himself be intimidated by this strange creature.

“Stand down, creature. In the name of the Sisters Royal I hereby place you under arrest, on grounds of public disturbance, the destruction of royal property, and suspected theft of the Elements of Harmony!”

The Queen of Blades was not amused, not only were these pathetic creatures threatening her with pointed sticks, but now one of them was even yelling at her, in a language she did not even understand no less. It did not take her psionic powers to feel the equine’s agitation, and she did not appreciate his idea of a greeting.

It was true that there had been a miscommunication however, perhaps they would be more inclined to talk if she informed them of her situation. It would be foolish to act with open hostility, especially considering that she had no idea what planet she was on, she certainly knew that it was not one she was familiar with. No, the Queen of Blades was an intelligent being, and she would not escalate a conflict, alone on a strange world as she was.

First thing first, she would need to get a hold of the local language. It should be a fairly simple thing, considering her substantial psionic abilities. Without moving a muscle she extended her mind towards the leading equine, intent on learning what she needed from this creature.

Only a few seconds had passed since his declaration, yet the creature hadn’t done much more than change its initial demeanor from one of annoyance, to one of curiosity. It hadn’t even shown signs of actually understanding what he had said, maybe it didn’t even speak their language. The only thing he knew was that the creature was a threat. It wasn’t just because of the claws and razor sharp wings, it was almost as if it radiated power, causing an involuntary chill to run down his spine.

He was just about to speak again when he noticed an itch at the back of his mind, barely discernible, yet disturbingly intrusive. Shining Armor looked questioningly at the creature, and noticed that its yellow eyes were glowing slightly. His eyes widened in realisation, this creature was using some kind of magic on him!

Something was wrong, her control was sloppy for some reason, and trying to subtly use her power was far more difficult than it should have been. Had her earlier experience somehow limited her? She had dismissed the notion after discovering that she was indeed not in a Terran base, but maybe there truly was something nearby hampering her psionic abilities. More troubling however, was that the equine showed signs of wielding some sort of power, different from hers, yet similar at the same time.

The Queen did not miss the sudden show of realisation on the equine’s face, and too late she withdrew her influence from his mind. She had only managed to gain a smidgen of information, mainly in regards to the palace she now found herself in. In the next moment, the leader was yelling something to its soldiers, and as one all the non-horned equines charged.

She couldn’t help but keep an annoyed frown from her face, this was not going like she had planned. That the equine was capable of detecting her mental intrusions meant that it at the very least had some sort of psionic training; even with her reduced prowess a normal human would’ve been unable to notice her psionic presence.

The Queen of Blades didn’t have much time to consider the implications, before no less than eight ponies with spears were upon her. She felt no real danger from the situation, these creatures were primitive after all, clearly incapable of creating any projectile or energy based weaponry. Thus, when the soldiers spread out in a flanking position and the first trio of spears were thrust at her from different directions, she simply responded with conjuring a protective blue barrier, each of the attacks being swiftly negated by the strong defense. Without waiting, she willed more power into the barrier, causing it to expand and collapse quickly, flinging the three equines away with the impact.

She didn’t have more than a moment’s respite before the flapping of wings warned her of their next attack, four flying equines with readied spears diving at her from above. Within a second she had formulated a response, and as the airborne pests came within distance, she quickly lashed out at two of them with a wing each, the razor sharp bone opening grievous wounds on their muzzles, yet surprisingly enough, did not rend their armor. Not having time to ponder the issue, the Queen of Blades swiftly grabbed hold of the last two thrusting spears with clawed hands, spinning around herself and releasing them at a high momentum, sending them flying into a marble pillar each with large thuds.

As the first two flying equines fell to the ground, their bloodied muzzles painting the floor red, a surge of energy was suddenly felt by the Queen of Blades, and as she directed her attention towards the five horned creatures that had stayed out of the battle, she noticed how they had lined up and energy was gathering in their horns. She only barely had time to establish a barrier before a torrent of energy bolts was fired at her, harmlessly deflected by her psionic defenses. The attacks had been powerful, truly, and might even have harmed her had she been any slower in responding. As the shield dissipated, the creatures looking on with disbelieving eyes, she sensed another mental signature approach her from behind. With a casual fling of her wing she sent the last remaining ‘normal’ equine, who had been trying to sneak up on her, flying away to join his fellows on the floor, a streak of blood escaping the long gashes in his fur and skin. Curiously, the armor still seemed much more durable than normal gold, or even reinforced metal, should be.

         The Queen of Blades turned to the remaining equines, who were already preparing another flurry of attacks by order of their captain. Not wanting to give them the chance to drain her further of power by forcing her to defend against their attack, the Queen made a swift motion with her hand, sending a large blast of kinetic energy in their direction. As the force of her attack ripped apart the marble floor, the horned equines barely had time to look surprised before the part of the room they were in exploded with a red light, sending debris and dust in all directions. She heard several grunts of pain, but when the dust cleared she saw, to her surprise, that the captain was still on his feet, a purple barrier of energy surrounding himself and his downed soldiers.

She couldn’t help but be impressed, to think that he could actually create a barrier strong enough to ward off her attack, and even save the lives of those around him. That took quite a bit of skill. The barrier was easily that of a class eight psionic, yet she hadn’t felt that sort of power from him previously. Intrigued, the Queen of Blades began walking towards him, the equine dismissing the barrier and glaring at her with defiance in his eyes. This one would likely put up a fight, but if she didn’t need to be subtle there’d be nothing he could do to stop her invasion of his mind, even if he was a class eight.

The horned equine gave a roar of anger, sending bolt after bolt of purple energy at her, yet each of them was casually flicked away with a hand. Soon she was on him, grabbing the purple armored equine and bodily lifting him off the floor by the throat, causing him to gag and cough in pain, the long claws of her fingers digging into his white fur. The Queen of Blades gave him a smile without mirth, reaching out to touch her mind with his.

‘You’re very impressive, little equine. Perhaps if you hadn’t been so defiant, I might have spared you and your men.’

The captain’s eyes widened as her thoughts entered his, confusion showing clearly even through the grimace of pain on his face. Already her claws were drawing blood, tainting his white fur with red.

‘No need to be afraid, this will all be over very soon...’

There was no solace in her words, for it was female as he had discovered from her mental voice, and he instinctively knew that he would not survive whatever this creature had in store for him. With a hiss of defiance his horn lit up, only to have his mind assaulted with a burst of psionic energy, his head aching with pain and causing him to lose concentration on the spell. Ever so slowly the strange creature reached towards his head with her remaining hand, and Shining Armor couldn’t help but feel fear as his end drew close.

The Queen of Blades did not truly need to actually touch her victim in order to influence them, but the proximity would make the whole thing easier, and the fear it caused was certainly a nice bonus. Just as her clawed hand was about to envelop his skull however, her senses picked up something unpleasant nearby. It was an absolutely massive power, even from this distance she would judge it to be at least a class ten, easily. An encounter with such a being at her current level of power would be unwise, and with a sneer of annoyance she let go of the equine, dumping him painfully on the ground.

Without hesitation the Queen spun around, taking a few large strides before leaping several meters through the air, crashing out through one of the structure’s many windows.

Shining Armor was gasping for breath; his body was on fire, throbbing with pain. He could not believe his luck, from what she had told him he hadn’t expected to actually survive the encounter, yet suddenly she had just let go and retreated. The athletic prowess she had exhibited during her escape did not surprise him, he had seen what she had been capable of after all. After spending a few seconds massaging his painful throat with a hoof, he quickly glanced around to discover the fate of his guards. They all seemed to be breathing, but some of them were in a very bad condition.

Just as he was about to get to his hooves, he heard the sound of several hoofsteps, and the voice of a very upset guardpony.

“Your highness! Please, you can’t go in there, we can’t let you endanger yourself like this!”

Shining Armor sighed, relieved to discover the likely reason for the monster’s retreat. No sooner had he gotten back on his hooves before the half-closed doors burst open, revealing the royal form of Princess Celestia, accompanied by a group of guards. They all looked nervous about allowing the princess into danger, yet when they took in the destruction in the room several of them quickly went to the aid of the wounded. Princess Celestia for one simply had a sad expression on her face, glancing around the room before her gaze finally came to a stop on Shining Armor, his armor dented and his fur bloodied.

With determined steps she trotted towards him. “Captain, what has happened here? Who is responsible for this?” Her voice was still the same kind, motherly one it had always been, but there was a hint of agitation and anger in it.

The captain of the guard looked up at his princess, bowing his head in shame. “I am sorry, your highness. A strange, alien creature had somehow gotten into the Vault, and I fear that the Elements are now in its possession.”

Princess Celestia cast a worried glance towards the destroyed Vault wall, one of the guards who had gone to investigate suddenly emerged from the opening, confusion plain on his face. “Sir! The Elements of Harmony are still in the Vault!”

Nopony, not even the millennia-old Princess Celestia, could keep a look of bafflement and disbelief from gracing their faces.

The librarian, Ancient Scroll, could not help but be in a joyful mood. He was happily trotting along the castle corridors, heading towards the Royal Library. After all, the library had just gotten a new shipment of exotic tomes, and he would be the first pony allowed to look at them. The grey furred unicorn put a small bounce in his step, excited at the prospect of cataloguing and examining these new acquisitions.

As he unlocked the door and stepped inside the library, the spirited librarian failed to notice a figure stepping out of the nearby shadows, eyes aglow with malicious intent and power as the creature reached out towards him with a single, clawed hand.